Pittsford trustees backtrack after zoning backlash

A sign along North Main Street in Pittsford notes its founding date. Village trustees on Tuesday are expected to adopt a zoning regulation that would relegate certain businesses to an out-of-the-way sector.
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DAVID ANDREATTA/staff photographer
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Facing intense criticism, village of Pittsford trustees on Tuesday rejected zoning legislation that would have kept six businesses, including tattoo and smoke shops, out of the main commercial district.

The disapproval was not waged in the name of free enterprise, however, but rather on the grounds that the businesses would have been relegated to a neighborhood whose homeowners don't want them either.

Specifically, the legislation would have authorized the businesses — tattoo parlors, pawn shops, check-cashing operations, distilleries, precious metal exchanges and smoke shops and lounges — to open only in a light industrial zone off of Grove Street.

That street is north of the Erie Canal and houses what is known as the "Old Pickle Factory," a former packaging plant that now has office space. But across from the factory and its parking lot sit dozens of homes.

"We may be zoned differently, but we live there," Cindy Heagerty, who lives on Elm Street just off Grove, told trustees. "If the village can't accept these businesses within the village main streets, they why should we have to accept them?"

She was one of about a dozen neighborhood residents who turned out to Village Hall to express concern after learning of the legislation in the Democrat and Chronicle.

None of the businesses are currently in Pittsford, and none have applied to set up shop.

Mayor Robert Corby has said the legislation was a preemptive move to keep such businesses out of the prime business district and away from homes.

He acknowledged, however, that residences border the factory and that the legislation as written would not work. "Sometimes we make mistakes and do stupid things and I'll be the first to admit we didn't think this through," he said.

He said the legislation would be redrawn and that trustees would explore ways to either prohibit the businesses or subject them to special permits that are hard to come by in Pittsford.